8 Best Ways to Use Delta SkyMiles

Delta is trying hard to set itself apart from its chief rivals, American and United. In the minds of many of its customers, it's succeeded in offering better customer service and operational reliability than its competitors. Yet it’s also distinguished itself from other airlines by making its SkyMiles frequent flyer miles incredibly hard to use. Delta no longer publishes an award chart, and it sometimes charges an amazingly large number of miles for an award flight. For example, it’s commonly asks for over 700,000 miles for a round-trip, business-class ticket from North America to South Africa, which is more than triple what other frequent flyer programs can charge.

But if you earn a lot of miles on Delta, then there are still ways to get value from your Delta SkyMiles. Consider these eight best ways to redeem your Delta frequent flyer miles:

1. Wait for a sale. Although Delta often charges more miles for award tickets than its competitors, it sometimes puts award tickets on sale. For example, it has offered domestic award flights for just 5,000 to 10,000 miles each way. It has also occasionally offered award sales on some of its international flights, even in business class, which it calls “Delta One.”

On the other hand, these sales aren’t much of a value, as the cash price for tickets can be highly discounted as well. For example, there’s no reason to get excited about a short, one-way award flight for 5,000 miles if Delta is selling the tickets for just $50.

2. Delta One awards to Europe. This year, Delta started charging more miles for its partner awards than it does for flights it operates. But thankfully, Delta is known for having excellent business-class seats, and pretty good food up front. These awards are often available for 140,000 miles round-trip. When these business class flights sell for $3,000 to $5,000, this can be a very good deal.

3. Awards in other parts of the world. There are many reasons why it can be hard to find a good deal on an award flight within the United States. Not only are you dependent on Delta releasing award seats at the lowest mileage levels, but Americans have so many miles chasing a limited number of awards. But once you are overseas, the situation is reversed. Foreign airlines that are Delta partners may release plenty of award seats, and there will be relatively few people trying to book those awards.

For example, Air France, KLM and Alitalia awards around Europe in economy class are often available for 15,000 miles each way. Awards within South America on Aerolineas Argentina can usually be found for just 12,500 miles each

4. Book your awards far in advance. With most airlines, the further out you book your award, the more likely you will be to find seats for the lowest possible miles. This is even more true with Delta, which tends to vary the number of miles needed with the cash price of a ticket. Like most airlines, Delta will only allow you to book flights about 11 months in advance. So if you really want to use the fewest miles possible for your award ticket, you should always be looking to book next year’s vacation now.

5. WestJet flights to Canada. Delta is part of the SkyTeam alliance of airlines, which includes 20 airlines such as Air France, KLM, Korean and AeroMexico. Yet it also partners with airlines outside of that alliance, such as Canada’s WestJet. To our neighbors to the north, WestJet is known as a discount alternative to Air Canada, and you can use your Delta miles to book flights between the US and Canada. This can be a very attractive option as a lack of competition usually makes flights to Canada far more expensive than domestic flights of similar distance.

6. Try the Fly Delta app. Delta’s website is notoriously buggy, especially when it comes to searching for award flights. However, the Fly Delta app appears to be built on much newer computer code, and can be far better at finding award space.

7. Call Delta. There are times when award space is available, but it just isn’t visible online. When this happens, your choices are to use the Fly Delta app, or just call Delta and try to get them to book your award.

But how do you know if award seats are available, but invisible online? One way is to search for awards on a partner’s website. For example, Flying Blue is the frequent flyer program of Air France, KLM and others. By creating a free account on its website, you can search for award seats on most SkyTeam partners. If you find award seats there, but not on Delta.com, you may be able to book your award flight by calling Delta. Just be aware that some agents are better trained than others, and you might need to politely end the call and try again if you get an unhelpful representative.

8. Consider non-alliance partners. Delta partners with several airlines outside of the SkyTeam Alliance. For example, it’s partnered with both Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia, which are renowned for their premium service. Award tickets on these airlines can be a bit more expensive than Delta tickets, but many travelers will find the extra miles worth it for the unique experience.
Other non-Skyteam partners include Jet Airways of India, GOL of Brazil and Hawaiian Airlines (inter-island flights only). You can also book flights on Asian carriers Thai AirAsia, JetStar and SkyMark.

9. Avoid non-flight awards. Award flights are only one of many ways to use your Delta SkyMiles, but they remain the best. You can also redeem your miles for rental cars, hotels, merchandise and even drinks in the Delta SkyClubs. However, you’re unlikely to ever receive more than 1 cent in value from each of your SkyMiles. When it comes to SkyMiles, stick to the sky.

Bottom line

It’s not easy to find great value for your Delta SkyMiles, but it’s still possible. By seeking out lesser-known airline partners, looking for sales and redeeming your miles in the app or the phone, you can fly as far as possible with your SkyMiles.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jason Steele is a one of the leading journalists covering the credit card industry and travel rewards. His work appears at many of the top personal finance websites and is regularly syndicated by mainstream sites such as MSN Money and Yahoo! Finance. Learn more about Jason Steele

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